Put the soup on . . . it’s Supper Club Time

Our Full Moon Supper Club continues to meet monthly on or near the full moon and our January hostess had a bountiful idea—everyone bring a crock pot of soup plus containers to take home leftovers. What an easy and long-lasting meal that turned out to be!

We had a good variety of soups to choose from: tomato and quinoa, Portuguese kale and sausage, cheesy tortellini, white bean, potato and my Mexican turkey and bean. Add bread and dessert and you have a meal for many, or a meal for the seven of us who attended then took home leftovers.

I would love to see your favorite soup recipe, so feel free to post it in the comments section. I won’t say the one I’m posting is my favorite (I have lots of favorite soups), but it’s a filling choice when there’s leftover turkey in the freezer and you have dry beans you want to use. I’ve only slightly varied this recipe from the original version I clipped out of Cooking Light magazine years ago.

Mexican Turkey and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 tsp. olive oil
½ C chopped onion
1 C coarsely chopped cooked turkey
1 ½ tsp. ground cumin
¼ tsp. garlic powder (or added chopped garlic)
1/8 tsp. red pepper or hot pepper sauce
16 oz. cooked navy beans (if using canned, rinse them)
15 oz. cooked chickpeas (garbanzos, and again, if using canned, rinse them)
16 oz. fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
4.5 oz. can chopped green chiles, drained
¾ cup wild or brown rice (can use quick-cooking type)
sour cream and tortilla chips to top

Heat olive oil and sauté chopped onion 5 minutes or so. Stir in chopped turkey and next 8 ingredients. Bring to boil; cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until rice is done. Enjoy!

Haitian Rice and Beans

Just about daily I chat online with my friend Juana Rodriguez who is working in Haiti to improve living conditions. Her dream is to establish a cocoa farm that would give people dignified work while also protecting the land. Those sorts of dreams can be very difficult to bring to reality in a country of so much poverty. But like the people of Haiti, Juana is resilient. She moves forward, even if conditions dictate moving at a slow pace.

Yolantha Harrison-Pace is another woman I think of when Haiti comes to mind. An artist who lives in Kentucky, Yolantha visited Haiti prior to the 2010 earthquake and returned to write a chapbook called, Nobody Knows the Haiti I’ve Seen. Besides relating stories of the land and people she came to know, Yolantha also included recipes from Haiti. She agreed to share one of these recipes with us for our simple Lenten meal of the week.

Haitian Rice and Beans

¼ cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of thyme
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 TBSP salt
2 TBSP oil
1 cup rice
2 cups cooked beans
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water

With a mortar and pestle, mash parsley, garlic, thyme, onion and salt into thick paste. Heat the paste and oil in a pot, add rice. Coat rice with oil, add vegetable broth, water and beans. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering until the rice is tender and water has been absorbed. Stir and serve hot.

As I eat my rice and beans, I also pray for Juana, Yolantha and people of Haiti.

Don’t forget your beans!

I oftentimes remember what one of my Latin American friends said about the beans and rice so common in the Latin diet—they make the perfect protein.

As someone who isn’t a big meat-eater, I’ve long explored the use of beans in my diet for their protein. They’re also tasty. So far this year, I’ve tried making and eating white bean and rosemary spread and white bean and turkey chili. Both were successful recipes. This week, Jim made his traditional pinto beans and I prepared the cornbread we must have to accompany that. A co-worker of mine said pinto beans and cornbread is one of his favorite meals so I ladled the beans into a jar, wrapped the cornbread in foil and presented them to him the next day. He was so excited about his meal that he polished it off before noon.

So beans were on my mind when I picked up the food section of the Lexington newspaper on Thursday and found an article about beans and their nutritional value. Their nutrition goes far beyond protein. Rather than write more about that, I’ll just refer you to the article.

If the information convinces you that this is your year to begin growing beans, I want to encourage you to include them in this year’s seed order. My experience tells me they are just about problem-free to plant and grow. If they are climbers, put up your trellis, plant, weed and let them grow. Check them as they grow in case you need to guide them up the trellis. Plant them early enough and you can get two crops from your beans. Let them dry on the vine before you pick them.

It takes a while to hull the beans but once you do you can store them in glass jars on your counter. Grow black, red, white and pintos and they’ll add some color to your kitchen. You’ll be surprised at how much more you enjoy eating your home-grown beans than what you buy in the store. They tend to be fresher so they don’t take quite as long to cook and the flavor will make you smile.
Get out that recipe book or that seed catalog and make your choices.

The beauty of simple food

Since Sunday evening I’ve been staying at PenHouse Retreat Center in Frankfort, Kentucky for some peaceful time to reflect and write. The big, old house with porches on every side offers spacious rooms, generous light and the melody of birds and insects. Those charms do not surpass that of the warm host and hostess—David and Normandi—readily offering their garden meals along with lively conversation.

I’ve often thought I would like to have a place like this to offer to artists, but if I were cooking, I fear there would be little peace for me. I always feel a need to fill a table with options so if my guest doesn’t like one dish, another will suffice. It often means hours of preparation and lots of fussing to make the table look grand.

As I sit at some else’s table, I appreciate the simple goodness of a garden meal in which the natural flavors stand on their own. Cabbage slaw, Goose beans, corn on chicken, garden-fresh spaghetti sauce. Oh yes, I’ve been treated well. Rich flavors intertwine with funny stories and lessons from the journey others are taking in life.

The next time I welcome guests, I hope I can remember that the most enjoyable meal requires more than detailed preparation. It’s the simplest of foods and most genuine of conversations that create the best dining experiences.

Soup season continues

Although we had a few days of temperatures in the 70s, the cooler weather has returned and along with it a pot of soup. I took two chicken backs out of the freezer the other day and didn’t use them. What to do? They looked perfect for using as a soup base to which I could combine some of our preserved vegetables. Even though this soup has very little meat in it (a chicken back is mostly bone) Jim still gave it a 10. That’s saying a lot!

Beth’s Gumbo
2 chicken backs plus miscellaneous chicken bones
1 strip dried seaweed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 ½ c tomato juice
¾ c carrots
¾ c okra
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp hot pepper
1 c barley (use less if you want more broth)

Put chicken in soup pot. Cover with water. Add seaweed and heat until boiling. Lower heat and simmer for an hour and a half.

Remove chicken from broth to cool. Add remaining ingredients and stir. When the chicken is cooled, remove the meat from the bone and add to the gumbo. Simmer for 30 minutes – 1 hour and taste for seasonings. This makes a thick soup so if you prefer more broth, adjust the ingredients.

Three easy meals in two days

My schedule has been so packed with writing and editing assignments this month that it’s been difficult to find time to cook. So I was thrilled to look through my favorite recipes and a stack of ideas to try to find three meals that were quick and easy to prepare.

I often spend two hours in the kitchen preparing a meal. That’s because I enjoy it and because cooking from scratch rather than a box takes longer. I was able to put these meals together in 30 – 60 minutes, a record for me. I also noticed I had fewer dishes to wash after cooking. That’s never a bad result!

Here’s what I did.

Breakfast: Baked Egg

1 egg
1 TBSP Salsa
¼ cup unthawed spinach
1 TBSP cheese

Mix ingredients and put into a single-serving sized baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or so until firm.

Lunch: Tortilla Tomato Soup with Beans and Rice and Quesadillas

We like Ellie Krieger’s Tortilla Tomato Soup and it’s one of those easy-to-prepare soups that reminds us of why we put so much work into canning our tomatoes during the summer.

While the soup cooked, I put on a pot of white rice. We had leftover pinto beans and knowing that rice and beans together make the perfect protein encouraged me in that direction.

As the two pots simmered on the stove, I sliced half an onion and a green pepper from the refrigerator. After sautéing them I put them on half of a whole wheat tortilla in the skillet, sprinkled with cheese and made a quesadilla.

Yes, it was a big lunch. And it all tasted good!

Supper: Asian Salmon with Stir Fried Vegetables

Lunch was so filling that I waited to make this supper until the next day. It fit in perfectly to my easy to prepare plan.

For several years I’ve been making the Barefoot Contessa’s Asian Salmon. Again, it’s quick and pleasing to the taste buds. I often bake it in the oven instead of grilling, which was true this time.

To go with the salmon I pulled vegetables out of the freezer to stir fry and serve with soba noodles. I prefer vegetables with a little crunch and of course since these had been frozen I didn’t get that. However, the taste of the dish, that I topped with a handful of cashews, was very good.

The lunch and supper both gave us leftovers for the next day when I wouldn't have a minute to spend in the kitchen.

The gardening season begins

Most of the garden seeds that I ordered arrived last week. I promptly organized them in my seed box in the order I’ll plant them, delighting in pulling out the ones I’ll put in the ground first—greens and beets. It was so warm and dry last week that Jim was even able to till the garden. Although I haven’t planted anything, I did have to put my hands in the dirt just to feel it on my palms.

I also went to the library last week for books about greenhouse growing. It’s time to put together the one we received for Christmas. I’m hoping to use it for my seedlings and since the only ones I’ve planted so far are pansies, I think the greenhouse can wait for a day when it’s not as windy as today.

Yesterday we drove out to our friend Joan’s farm to cut reeds. They're drying out on the picnic table by the garden until we need them in a couple of months. My garden plan this year includes using one-third to one-half of the rectangular plot for beans, primarily dry beans (pinto, kidney, black and cannellini). So we’re going to experiment with reeds slashed together like teepees that we can sink into the ground, providing a good climbing surface. I like the idea of using one of nature’s gifts that could be useful for a couple of years before we have to cut more. When they’ve deteriorated we can put them in the compost pile.

Next on the agenda will be getting some planting soil so I can start sprouting seedlings. Even if winter returns us to evenings by the fireplace, I’ll know that spring is on its way.

Bean week in the Brown house

Winter is the season when I most enjoy eating beans and when I saw our home-grown kidney and pinto beans in jars on my kitchen counter, I knew this was the week.

I started on Sunday when I indulged in one of my favorite kinds of meals—Italian. I prepared spinach and cheese manicotti with tomato sauce, meatballs, roasted Cushaw and pasta e fagioli soup. The soup is a Giada de Laurentis recipe that I hadn’t tried and the combination of pasta and beans with our homegrown kidney beans was fabulous. Of course since it’s February I didn’t have fresh herbs, but it still turned out so well that Jim rated it a “10” without even being asked. We also had leftovers to carry us over into the week, one of the benefits of a big Sunday afternoon meal.

By the time Thursday arrived, we had exhausted our leftovers and other easy-to-prepare meals so Jim made pinto beans. Jim is the pinto bean king. I will admit I had never eaten pinto beans until I moved to Kentucky and I do love the protein-packed soup with corn bread. I tried a new corn bread recipe (from Hindman Settlement School in eastern Kentucky) and it proved to be moist and perfect to accompany the beans.

Now we’ve used all of the beans we grew last year. This year I’ll plant many more so the joy doesn’t end so early.

Going on a bean binge

Other than making stir fry with some freezer vegetables one evening, I didn’t cook much this week. Jim was in a cooking mood and he went on a bean binge. We had pinto beans and cornbread, chili and great northern beans. They were great bowls to warm us on the cold winter evenings.

Beans are a nutritious source of fiber and protein with multiple health benefits. Foods with significant fiber can help to lower cholesterol while preventing blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after eating. For more nutritional benefits of beans, check out www.whfoods.com.

We didn’t grow the beans we cooked this week, although we might take it up again this year. I find growing beans to be relatively easily; it’s shucking the dried beans that is the hard work. Jim, however, has tough hands that do it more readily than mine so it’s worth considering if we have the garden space to grow some of our favorite beans.